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I never thought I'd see the day. I really didn't. ESPN actually covering cricket. Who would have thunk it? Thanks to Jerry, who seems to be really on top of the ball lately- he might actually graduate from Xanga and get a position here, maybe as a Desi Sports Editor-- we actually have gotten hold of a great article by ESPN producer Amir Shah. The American sports network actually takes the opportunity to analyse swings in cricket with the help of-- some guy in a studio. I think the video is of Sachin Tendulkar whacking those balls like he usually does.

Amir Shah offers a pretty good perspective of someone who grew up in New York, far away from cricket and closer to those Yankee sports such as basketball and baseball:

Though both my parents were born in India and my dad played cricket fervently in his youth, I did not inherit the sport as a dominant genetic trait during my childhood in New York. Instead of tales of cricket legends such as Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, I was schooled on the stories of Clyde's Knicks, Tom Terrific's Mets, Broadway Joe's Jets and Park's Rangers. When my dad came to America in the late '60s, it was Marv Albert who taught him how to speak English as he listened to Knicks games on the radio. Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden were part of my early childhood vocabulary.

Football was my first love, hockey my crush, basketball my passion, and baseball my soul mate. Cricket? Well, cricket remained a long distant cousin, who lived continents away. But now I returned to India to celebrate my wedding and, unfortunately for Tejal, to become a participant in the world's greatest sports rivalry. My humble apologies to Red Sox and Yankee loyalists, Manchester United and Arsenal hooligans, but the intense battle between India and Pakistan was on a nuclear level, and I don't mean that figuratively.

Amir talks about his wedding to Tejal in Bombay and the extravagant scenes before and after the ceremony. Reading his descriptions made me nostalgic for my days in Delhi when I would go to the terrace of our apartment and watch a wedding procession go by with the bride and the groom on horseback. What really amazes me is that ESPN is covering cricket at all, a sport some Americans vaguely understand or have even heard of. I guess it's all part of this new E-ticket thing that happens every weekend on ESPN.com. Go to this site to see a wealth of information on cricket and to get some new perspectives. I really enjoyed this quote:

I didn't get a chance to ride on the elephant like I wanted to, but the horses and carriage served sufficiently for the Maharaja feeling. The live marching band beat its rhythmic drums and its regal horns blared. We rode to the wedding like the ultimate royal caravan. My uncles played the bootleggers in dry Gujarat, supplying bottles of Johnny Walker Black Label that they picked up at duty-free shops.

The wedding ceremony gave way to the simple blissfulness of the perfect day. Tejal radiated enchantment in her wedding sari. Once again I realized how lucky I was and would be for the rest of my life.

Awwwww?? Right? I love how Johnny Walker Black Label, Elephants, and Gujarat are always linked together. Go here to read the rest of the article and learn more about cricket.

On a side note- I sucked at cricket in India. I came here and tried playing-- I still suck.

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